Role of the Government in Car Speeding Limits
Regulating speed limit is one of the crucial ways of ensuring road safety. There is need to prevent the increased deaths caused by car crashes and other road accidents resulting from reckless driving techniques and over speeding. The government has enacted several measures that regulate speed limit as a way of ensuring the safety standards are maintained while driving so as to protect the lives of all citizens as it is a vital role of government to ensure that the life of all the people is protected through ensuring safety measures are observed.
Although critics argue that government should not be involved in regulating speed limits as they have other important matters to attend to concerning the national security and development plans, it is essential for them to realize that the government involvement in this issue is as important as any other matter because it has a direct impact on the safety standards of the citizens. This paper therefore brings to attention the vital roles that are played by the government body in regulating car speed limits and how this has helped in maintaining a safe environment for all the people as well as a productive environment with minimal destruction of property as a result of unregulated speed of vehicles.
Cases of traffic accidents related to over speeding and reckless driving have been on the increase mainly because driving at high speeds compromise the driver’s level of control. Speeding drivers not only put their life in danger but also affects other road users, passengers and pedestrians. Their response time in case of an emergency is affected by the speeds and normally takes longer. This has brought the need for the government to step in and set the safe driving speeds as a way of ensuring that the safety of all road users is not compromised. Traffic regulations are enforced by the police department and other government authorities with offenders charged in court (Delhaye, 13).
In addition to the formulation of traffic rules, the government has provided effective speed detecting gadgets and speed display signs to regulate speeding as well as detect any vehicle violating the traffic laws related to speeding. These include traffic lights that control the flow of traffic on busy roads especially in major cities. Display signs that show the required speed limits as well as gadgets that detect the speed of approaching vehicles are located at strategic points in major highways as a way of regulating driving speed. These have enabled drivers to monitor their speed and adhere to the set laws and regulations hence promoting safety of the pedestrians, other drivers as well as their own lives.
The local government authorities which are responsible for enacting speed limit laws in residential areas and towns have a mandate of hearing and adjusting speed control requests from the citizens for safety purposes especially in residential areas. This is mostly in times when the citizens feel that the existing speed limits are higher and risky or when additional road signs need to be added in particular areas. They also regulate speed in highly populated areas by putting road bumps.
As a way of regulating speed limits on different roads, the government bodies dealing with road planning and development play an important role of advising, and cautioning motorists on safety measures on roads (Elvik, 227). This is achieved through installation of road signs that cautions the drivers to observe speed limits as well as get to know the terrain of the road they are using. Through the department of planning and MUTCD, the government has erected LED signs on the roads indicating places with sharp corners, constricting roads as well as other vital road conditions that require the driver to slow down. (Tole, 15).
Managing speed control measures through roads planning and implementation of development plans that determine the amount of speed to promote safety on roads is also another role-played by the government as a measure of controlling speed limits (Tole, 16). The amount of speed to be used in a particular place is determined by the roughness and steepness of the road, which is made during the construction and the geographical terrain as well as the type of road (two way or one way road). In addition, the government has set speed limits for various types of vehicles including small cars, trucks and heavy trailers which are restricted to drive above 55 miles or below at some places.
The involvement of the government bodies in regulation of car speed limits have played a crucial part in ensuring the lives of innocent road users are protected from reckless road users in various states in the country. This has also enabled the government to regulate environmental issues such as air pollution resulting from car over speeding and also manage fuel consumption, which is determined by the speed of the car. Therefore, the government involvement in regulating speed control in moving vehicles does not only ensure reduction of accidents caused by car crashes but also improves economic development through reduction of fuel consumption in vehicles and also ensure safe environment free from air and noise pollution for the safety living conditions of all the citizens.
Works Cited
Albalate, Daniel. Social Preferences and Transport Policy: The case of US speed limits. 2009. http://ideas.repec.org/p/ira/wpaper/200926.html
Delhaye, Eef. Traffic safety: speed limits, strict liability and a km tax - KU Leuven. 2004. http://ideas.repec.org/p/ete/etewps/ete0407.html
Elvik, Rune. Speed Limits, Enforcement, and Health Consequences. Annual Review of Public Health Vol. 33, 2012.
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031811-124634
Tole, Joseph. Speed Concepts: Informational Guide. U.S. Department of Transportation, FHWA, 2009.
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/speedmgt/ref_mats/fhwasa10001/
